Entergy Builds New Transmission to Replace Hurricane-Ravaged Line

Entergy subsidiaries on Thursday announced they had completed three major transmission projects in south Louisiana, including a rebuild of a line in Plaquemines Parish that had been destroyed in Hurricane Katrina and two upgrades to transmission lines that run through the Baton Rouge to New Orleans corridor.

While the three projects were spearheaded by Entergy’s transmission group, Entergy Louisiana Entergy Gulf States Louisiana said cross-functional teams partnered with permitting authorities, state agencies and local governments, the Army Corps of Engineers, local landowners, the railroad companies, and other entities to complete the projects.

The project in Plaquemines Parish is a new 19-mile-long transmission line that replaces a transmission line that was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. The new 115-kV line runs along Highway 23 on the west bank of the Mississippi River. The old line ran through marshland along the east bank of the river.

With the new transmission line running along Highway 23, the line is more accessible for maintenance and restoration work, Entergy said. The former line had required the company to use specialized equipment and specially trained crews and pay mitigation costs any time work was performed on the line. The project also allowed the company to replace older facilities with new, modern equipment that was built to the latest standards for extreme coastal areas and is designed to withstand 150-mile-per-hour winds.

Though technically two separate projects, the Amite South II and III projects collectively increase the companies’ ability to import purchased power into southeast Louisiana by approximately 350 MW. Before the start of the two projects, Entergy’s Louisiana utilities could import about 2,450 MW of purchased power into the Amite South region—an area that encompasses much of Entergy Louisiana’s and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana’s service areas in southeast Louisiana.

The Amite South II portion of the project includes 18 miles of new 230-kV line across parts of St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes as well as a rerouting of 4.5 miles of existing lines in those parishes. A new substation in St. James Parish and improvements to three other substations in St. John the Baptist Parish were also completed as part of the project.

The Amite South III portion of the project includes upgrading 11 miles of 230-kV line in Livingston and East Baton Rouge parishes as well as upgrading an additional 8.3 miles of 230-kV line in Ascension Parish. The project also led to improvements at four substations.

The new facilities constructed as part of the Amite South II and III projects are located further inland from the coast, and were built to the latest standards, designed to withstand 140-mile per hour winds.

Source: Entergy Corp.